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Mentaiko Pasta

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

The light creaminess of the pasta combined with the umami flavor of the salted cod raw, which is perfect Asian palettes. This dish can be whipped up in less than 30 minutes for a quick lunch or simply a noodle dish for parties. It is also super affordable, costing less than $10 and feeding up to 2 people. Mentaiko also has a great shelf life and can be kept in the freezer for months, and takes about 10 minutes to defrost. This is a dish that is best served fresh, as reheating it as leftovers will alter the taste and texture.

Ingredients

Scale

  • One small pack of mentaiko that sometimes has 2-3 pieces of spicy cod roe

  • 2 tablespoons of butter

  • ¼ cup of milk

  • Salt to taste

  • ¼ lb of Spaghetti

  • 3 pieces of small seaweed

Instructions

  1. Heat a pot of water on high heat with the lid on

  2. Once water boils, put two servings of dime size spaghetti in the pot and let it boil on high heat for about 11 minutes

  3. On a cutting board, use small knife to slice cod roe from top to bottom but not cutting through to the bottom of the skin

  4. Use a small metal spoon to scrape the mentaiko out of the skin and put into mixing bowl

  5. Keep scraping with spoon and use other hand to hold down skin until all of the cod roe is out of the skin

  6. Discard skin

  7. Cut butter into small increments and put into mixing bowl with mentaiko

  8. Pour milk into mixing bowl

  9. Using scissors cut the seaweed into small slices

  10. Once spaghetti is done cooking, drain pasta in colander right away and drain away all water

  11. Using tongs, mix spaghetti into mixing bowl with cod roe mixture and keep mixing with tongs and adding spaghetti at the same time

  12. The warm spaghetti will melt the butter and warm the cod roe

  13. Serve mentaiko pasta on plate with cut seaweed on top as garnish

Notes

  1. Using half and half or heavy cream will give the sauce a thicker texture

  2. Japanese supermarkets sell spaghetti that vary in size, depending on the size of your spaghetti, follow the directions for proper cook 

  3. There are two types of mentaiko, spicy and non spicy, I like to use spicy cod roe for this recipe

  4. I like to use the method of grouping the dry spaghetti to measure and see if it is dime size, which is roughly the estimate for one serving

 

 

Keywords: Mentaiko Pasta, Cod Roe Pasta

Find it online: https://adashofsoy.com/blog-1/2020/10/17/mentaiko-pasta/